Heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) is a technology that magnetically records data on recording media using thermal assistance. HAMR can utilize high-stability magnetic compounds that can store single bits in a small area. To achieve areal density greater than one terabit per square inch (Tb/in2) for next generation hard drives, FePt based alloys (e.g., L10 FePt) have been widely investigated because of their desirably high magnetocrystalline anisotropy. The performance of such magnetic media can be characterized by a number of parameters. For example, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is an important parameter for measuring recording performance of magnetic media and conventional media often have insufficient SNR. Therefore, it is desirable to develop new approaches to improve SNR of HAMR magnetic recording media.